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Journal Details of the Minnesota Shooter; Jennifer Mascia is Interviewed about the Minnesota Shooting; Israel Recovers Remains of Two Hostages; Vance Leads Defense of Trump Policies. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired August 29, 2025 - 06:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[06:32:17]

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tonight's game is more than just an opener. It's about community.

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AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: A moment of silence last night for the University of Minnesota as football fans honored the victims of the Minneapolis catholic school shooting at the first college football game of the season.

Good morning to you. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for joining us on CNN THIS MORNING.

It's half past the hour, and here's what's happening right now.

A judge in D.C. will hear a Federal Reserve governor's request to block her firing. President Trump said Monday that he was firing Cook because of an allegation that she committed mortgage fraud.

And a trade loophole that has let people skip import fees on small packages. Well, that ends today. Shipments under $800 have been exempt from tariffs until now. All low-value goods from overseas will now be subject to extra fees.

And this morning, the two children killed in the Minnesota catholic school mass shooting are being remembered. The family of ten-year-old Harper Moyski says she was bright, joyful and deeply loved. And the family of eight-year-old Fletcher Merkel says he loved friends, fishing and sports.

Last night, the community gathered outside the church where a shooter cut those two young lives short. A memorial is growing for Harper and Fletcher, filled with stuffed animals and flowers and signs of support. Fletcher's father speaking out here.

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JESSIE MERKEL, FLETCHER'S FATHER: (INAUDIBLE).

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CORNISH: Injured. Most of them children.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, at first I thought a balloon popped, but then it just kept on going down the line.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Down the line of the windows?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Down the line of the windows, yes.

CHLOE FRANCOUAL, STUDENT, ANNUNCIATION CATHOLIC SCHOOL: Every time I see, like, a window open, I want to close it because -- just, I don't want it happening again. And what's scary to think about is that, what if another person comes?

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CORNISH: There may have been warning signs missed ahead of the attack. And we're learning more about the shooters' past.

CNN's Kyung Lah has more.

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ROBIN WESTMAN, MINNESOTA SHOOTING SUSPECT: I regret everything. I didn't ask for life.

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The warning signs were there. The shooter, in disturbing videos, timed to post online as the shooting began, shows off various writings.

WESTMAN: Hope you can read that.

LAH (voice over): "I am severely depressed and have been suicidal for years," reads a sentence on the page. A fascination with violence started as a young teenager.

[06:35:05]

In another section that's written in a code language using Cyrillic characters, the shooter wrote, "my interest in specifically school shootings started, I think, in seventh grade." Westman claims on this page, "I got in big trouble for asking classmates, if there was a school shooting, where would you hide? I got suspended for a week, I think, when I was caught in seventh grade. I don't remember ever talking to a therapist."

WESTMAN: I'm sorry to my family, but that's it.

LAH (voice over): Westman references family in loving terms multiple times. In this page, writing again in code, "I feel like my mom would have seen it coming due to my rocky past with violent threats." Westman's mother worked at Annunciation Catholic but retired years

ago. A yearbook photo shows the shooter graduated the eighth grade from Annunciation in 2017. Later that year, in the fall semester, Westman enrolled in a charter school for two months before attending school at an all-boys catholic prep school. The 2018 yearbook from Saint Thomas Academy shows then Robert Westman dressed as a cadet for the Videography Club. It's unclear whether the shooter ever graduated from high school.

A neighbor where the shooter last lived described Westman as polite. Former Annunciation classmates say they never saw any red flags.

WESTMAN: I don't know how I'm going to fill in the rest for y'all.

LAH (voice over): The majority of what's posted online spews hate at virtually every group and religion the shooter could think of, and then builds on what other school shooters have done before. But if there's any difference here, it's on this one page, where the killer talks about gun control. "I think it's horrible that these events happen, and I do think it should be harder for people like me to carry out these attacks."

LAH: The online posts also detailed the planning that went into this. And as police explained in a news conference, the shooter visited the church before the attack.

What's also online is a window into a twisted mind. So, if you're looking for a why, you will likely not find it. But the lesson, like in many of these shootings, is that there are often warning signs to all of us that those closest to any troubled person may see and should not ignore.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.

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CORNISH: All right, joining me now to talk more about this, Jennifer Mascia, who's a senior news writer for "The Trace," which follows gun laws and gun data in this country.

Thank you so much for being with us.

JENNIFER MASCIA, SENIOR NEWS WRITER, "THE TRACE": Thanks for having me. I'm sorry it's under these circumstances.

CORNISH: I am glad you're here because you know a lot about these policies. Robin Westman was able to legally buy a rifle, shotgun, handgun, pass background checks, was over the required age, had no criminal or mental health record, you know, or restraining orders. Minnesota has a lot of gun restrictions. So, what do you think when you hear people talking about having more, what more needs to be done?

MASCIA: Well, how many times do we hear this, right, like, the shooter got their guns legally. I feel like every shooting we hear the same thing over and over again. The truth is, in America, unless you have a felony conviction or you

have been adjudicated by a court, committed to a mental health facility against your will, you can own a gun. I mean, job interviews in this country are more thorough than gun background checks.

Minnesota is an outlier in that it has pretty strong gun laws. You need a permit just to buy a handgun there, and a semiautomatic rifle. I mean very few states have that. That's a process that does involve a deeper level of vetting than a two-minute FBI background check. And you have to renew your permit every year. So, there is -- there are intervention points for law enforcement who are granting these permits to have more discretion and to maybe deny a permit.

But the truth is that no state mandates a mental health assessment to get a firearm. And that's really where we're different from other countries.

CORNISH: Can you talk more about interventions? One of the things that has been so jarring is just the sheer volume of, in a way, publicly available materials on social media, et cetera, that this person left behind, obviously trying to send some kind of message. Are there ways that people can intervene? And what would that even look like?

MASCIA: Well, there -- this -- this happens a lot too, where after the shooting, suddenly all of this stuff was out there for everyone to see but nobody caught it. So, there were a few intervention points here. The internet is the obvious one. You know, these posts, a lot of them were public. But even if he belonged to discord servers, YouTube, he was obviously posting on YouTube. You know, there are opportunities for intervention in those spaces. And past mass shootings have been -- you know, red flags have been raised by fellow internet chat people.

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Also, he visited the school. He was able to diagram the inside, the interiors, because he visited the school last week. Did that raise alarm bells? Did anybody notice that maybe his behavior was off? I mean he was an alumnus, so they knew him, and his mother used to work there. What was going on there?

The gun dealer. You know, we don't know where he bought the gun yet, but a gun dealer always can refuse a sale if there's a weird vibe. They do have that discretion. There's also the law enforcement officer who issued the permit. You know, what was that process like? You can fake your way through a gun permit interview. And it's -- it's possible, as we see, even in strong gun law states.

And then, of course, there's Minnesota red flag law. That depends -- in Minnesota, law enforcement or a family member can petition for an extreme risk protection order, which temporarily -- it's a civil, not criminal, process. Temporarily your guns are taken so a judge can evaluate the -- if you are a risk to yourself or others. That means that family members have to snitch on their loved ones. And that's a lot for somebody. Maybe -- maybe family members shouldn't be the first line of defense when it comes to these horrific attacks. That's a lot to put on somebody. CORNISH: Jennifer, thank you so much for talking with us. I hope we

can come back to you for more of your reporting.

MASCIA: Thanks so much.

CORNISH: Next on CNN THIS MORNING, Vice President Vance says his role is the White House's top messenger, but can he actually sell the president's agenda to the people?

Plus --

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GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): The carnage in Louisiana is defined.

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CORNISH: Where will the president deploy the National Guard next? The governor of California has some ideas.

And some good news if you're driving somewhere this holiday weekend. We want to know what's in your group chat. Send it to us now on X. We're going to be talking about ours after this.

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CORNISH: Tis just in, Israeli forces say they have recovered the remains of two dead hostages that had been held by Hamas. One victim was identified as Ilan Weiss. The 56-year-old was killed during the October 7th attacks and his body was stolen and taken into Gaza. The other remains have not been identified.

We're going to bring in CNN's Nada Bashir.

Nada, can you give us a sense of what you're learning right now?

NADA BASHIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Audie, this update has just come in from the Israeli prime minister's office. And, of course, as you can imagine, this has already drawn a reaction, of course, from the representatives and family members of the hostages currently held captive in the Gaza Strip, who have said that alongside the grief and the pain, this provides some comfort to those family members after more than 600 days of waiting for news on their loved ones.

And of course, as you mentioned, the information that we're being provided with at this stage from the Israeli prime minister's office is that they have recovered the body of one hostage and the remains of another.

Now, the remains of that hostage have not yet been identified. What we do know, as you mentioned, Audie, is that the recovered body has now been identified as Ilan Weiss, the 56-year-old Israeli hostage who was taken captive from kibbutz Be'eri during the Hamas attacks on October 7th. He was also taken hostage alongside his wife and daughter. They were actually released during that first initial ceasefire or truce in November 2023. At the time, Ilan Weiss was believed to still be alive. But in January 2024 he was confirmed to have been killed during those initial Hamas attacks.

And of course, it is understood that his body was then taken by Hamas back into Gaza and held captive there. So, this may bring some solace to family members who had been waiting to put Ilan Weiss to rest after what is being clearly described as obviously a very tragic moment for this family coming to terms with this fact.

And, of course, we will still be waiting to hear more from the Israeli prime minister's office with regards to the other identified -- unidentified hostage.

Of course, we don't know just yet where exactly these bodies were recovered from. That information has not been provided by the Israeli military. They say both bodies were recovered during the same military operation.

And this comes as the Israeli military doubles down on its military offensive on Gaza City and parts of northern Gaza. At this stage, of course, it is understood that there are still more -- there are still 20 hostages believed to be alive, according to the latest information provided by the Israeli prime minister's office.

Audie.

CORNISH: CNN's Nada Bashir. And we're going to bring you more on that story today as we learn more information.

Now, President Trump says that his big, beautiful bill is due for a rebrand.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The bill that -- I'm not going to use the term great, big, beautiful. That was good for getting it approved. But -- but it's not good for explaining to people what it's all about.

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CORNISH: So, whatever they decide to call it, here's the guy who's probably going to be out there on the road selling it.

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J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've got to make sure that people are aware of what's actually in this legislation. Because I think when they realize what's in it, they're going to be very gratified that their federal government is working for them.

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CORNISH: All right. And it's not an easy sell because there's some new polling out there. Pew shows nearly half the country rejects the legislation.

And joining us now in the group chat, Francesca Chambers, White House correspondent at "USA Today," who you just saw sitting in the chair across from the vice president.

How are you? Thank you for being here.

FRANCESCA CHAMBERS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "USA TODAY": Oh my gosh, thank you so much for having me.

CORNISH: I notice in -- when you asked him about this, he launched into the patter that I -- I think we're going to be hearing, which was about it being tax cuts and that those taxes and tax cuts were sort of aimed at working people. Can you talk about how they're reframing this?

[06:50:04]

CHAMBERS: Sure. So, the vice president had actually started calling it the "working families tax cut" during a stop in Georgia last week that he was making to promote the bill, which caught a lot of people's attention because it had been being called the one big, beautiful bill before.

CORNISH: Which is not as catchy also as the one big, beautiful bill.

CHAMBERS: So, then you heard, and as you showed --

CORNISH: Yes.

CHAMBERS: President Trump then says, you know, I've decided we don't want to call it that anymore, which, by the way, he was the one who wanted to call it that and had the bill name changed to that. We're not going to call it that anymore because we want to focus on the tax cuts.

And so, I asked the vice president about this rebranding effort because he is the one who has been taking the lead on this, to go out there and talk about it. And I'm told he'll be out there even more in the coming months to talk about the bill. And so, you heard him there. He wanted to really talk about the no tax on overtime. The -- or no tax on tips. Those are things, by the way, that will run through 2028 conveniently until the end of the administration and the next presidential election, especially if you're someone who might be thinking about running for president in 2028. So, there was a lot there from him.

CORNISH: Another good example was he -- you asked him about -- there was -- sorry, you didn't ask him this, but there was this conversation out of Minneapolis after the shooting where you heard the mayor and others say, please don't do the thoughts and prayers routine, these kids were literally praying at a church, and really being kind of dismissive of that language. And Vance had a really interesting reply to this, and I want you guys to hear it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My final point on this is, when I see far-left politicians say, how dare you offer thoughts and prayers, you need action. You know, I don't care about your prayers, I care about what you're going to do to prevent this from happening. Why does it have to be one or the other? Why can't you pray for the speedy recovery of these kids who literally just got shot yesterday?

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CORNISH: Aaron, can I bring you into this? Can -- what do you guys see? You spoke to him, right, so you understand how he thinks of himself as a messenger. And I thought this was a sophisticated response.

AARON BLAKE, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes. So, I think, going back to about a decade ago, we saw Democrats come out and start making this argument, which is that soon after mass shootings, thoughts and prayers are insufficient. You know, we can't just, you know, fall back on that because it gives you an excuse not to do anything about this, whether that's gun control or anything else. And what's interesting here is, we're seeing an administration now pushing back on this. We're seeing Republicans pushing back on this.

CORNISH: But they came up with something is what I hear.

BLAKE: Yes. I think it's important to note, though, you know, J.D. Vance cast this as, Jen Psaki, the former White House press secretary, the Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey, saying that you shouldn't pray or attacking prayer. That's not what they were saying. They were actually saying, prayer is not enough. We also need action. This is also something that some faith leaders say about these kinds of things.

So, I think it's interesting to see the pushback. But, you know, when you look at how people feel about the power of prayer, you see that this is a politically potent argument. People think that the -- the -- there is a power in prayer. More than seven in ten Americans say they believe in the power of prayer. There was a mass shooting, of course, of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords back in 2011, and -- and a Fox News poll actually asked, do you believe that prayer helped save Gabrielle Giffords back then? And 77 percent of Americans believe that that played a role in having her survive that attack.

CORNISH: Yes.

BLAKE: So, I think it is a situation in which Democrats probably need to be careful about looking like they're deriving (ph) there.

CORNISH: But the reason why I'm bringing it up is because we're talking about two moments where he is an effective messenger. And then you asked him about a moment that I think internationally made people look at him differently, which is the way he behaved in the Oval Office with Zelenskyy, saying, like, have you even said thank you? Inserting himself, right, I think aggressively. What did he say about that? CHAMBERS: Well, he said that he was not -- not necessarily wished it

hadn't happened. You know, so he kind of hedged on whether or not he had regrets about what -- how it went down.

CORNISH: Oh, let me play it so people can hear how he phrased it.

CHAMBERS: OK. OK. OK.

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J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I mean, do I wish that we had had a blowup in the Oval Office in public? Not necessarily. But do I think that it actually elucidated some of the real issues of disagreement between the United States side and the Ukrainian side? Yes. And I think that was useful for the American people to see. And I think we'll continue to have these conversations.

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CORNISH: I was surprised to see that answer because it wasn't punchy. It wasn't like, no regrets. We needed to do that. He was like, ah, not ideal.

CHAMBERS: He was -- I mean he was reflective in that moment. But prior to that, I had asked him, you know, about how he had had this contentious dispute with Zelenskyy. And he was like, well that's putting it mildly. So, you know, so I think he was actually reflective of the moment.

But, you know, he then goes on to say that when it comes to peace and a ceasefire, we're largely aligned with Zelenskyy. And I think he caught some people's attention by saying, we support Ukraine's territorial integrity. We don't think Russia should have all of Ukraine.

So, to your point, even in some of these answers, regardless of what the question was to him, there we're some very revealing information about, I think, how his thinking has -- has changed or the administration's thinking has changed on some of these issues over time.

[06:55:04]

CORNISH: Does he see himself as next in line? We know he sees himself as vice president, but does -- did you talk 2028?

CHAMBERS: I did with him. And, you know, I noted that he says that he's not measuring the drapes in the Oval Office right now, but he does seem to be thinking about it. He certainly had an answer ready to go when I asked if he talked to his wife, Usha, about running in 2028. I thought that maybe he'd want to answer that question, but he --

CORNISH: Every reporter thinks that they want to answer that question. Then we come on shows like this and we go, he's running, OK. So --

CHAMBERS: Yes, but then, you know, he's saying, well, we'll see if the -- you know, we'll see what happens, you know, sort of thing.

CORNISH: OK.

All right, stay with -- stay with me because I know you can talk about this issue too.

All week we've been talking about this kind of federal takeover, so to speak, supporting the D.C. police force. The Trump administration, of course, has been talking a lot more now about Chicago. So, I want to show you something. The U.S. Navy base near Chicago, where federal forces could launch this new immigration operation in the city. CNN has learned it could happen by the end of next week. The city has long been a target for top Trump administration officials.

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TOM HORMAN, BORDER CZAR: Chicago still has a crime problem. So, President Trump, again, made a promise to the American people, we'll make this country safe again. So, Chicago has a crime problem. That's why President Trump is thinking about it.

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CORNISH: All right, so, if the president is looking for another state to send National Guard, California Governor Gavin Newsom has some ideas.

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GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): Just look at the murder rate. That's nearly four times higher than California's, in Louisiana, is Speaker Johnson.

Perhaps the president could deploy the National Guard in every corner of Mississippi. It's a --- the murder rate's out of control there. Carnage. We can talk about the carnage in Arkansas, again, one of the top ten murder states in America, two and a half, 2.6 times greater than San Francisco. Again, these are just -- not just observations, they're -- they're stone-cold facts.

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CORNISH: They're not just observations. They're printouts. So, obviously, this is something that they're going to be leaning into. And just for a few facts, we have got the violent crime stats for 2024. You can see for yourself some of the cities on that list, Memphis, Detroit, Baltimore, which people have talked about, but also Cleveland and Kansas City.

What's interesting to me is, there are places that are sending their National Guard to D.C. Couldn't they just keep their National Guard where it is and do this whole exercise themselves?

ROB BLUEY, PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE DAILY SIGNAL": Well, I think the American people understand that -- that crime, and Donald Trump has tapped into this in recent weeks, is -- is a, you know, life and death issue for -- CORNISH: But the dynamic of being like, red state, National Guard here --

BLUEY: Sure.

CORNISH: Blue state, like, civilian population -- like, there's something about it that feels like it's creating unnecessarily a divisive feeling.

BLUEY: Well, Gavin Newsom, good example of this. You didn't play the clip, Audie, but he also announced yesterday that he's surging in areas of California where he needs to address a crime problem.

CORNISH: Yes.

BLUEY: So, as we've seen Gavin Newsom copy President Trump in terms of his messaging and style on Truth Social, he's also mimicking some of the policies, because I think if you're a political leader right now and crime is -- is perceived as a problem in big cities, yes, you need to respond to those challenges.

ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: The difference is, Rob, I don't think anyone is anti-fighting or dealing with crime. I think they --

BLUEY: Then why haven't they don't it?

SEAWRIGHT: I think -- I think the difference is, this president wants to put color on crime. He wants to politicize crime, i.e. picking at or nagging at cities that have high African American populations or with African American mayors. Because when in times of crisis, as Donald Trump is with his poll numbers and his base, he tends to lean on certain things, race, crime, public safety, immigration and patriotism. That's been his pattern, practice in history as an elected official, i.e. president of the United States. So, here he is going back to his comfort zone.

If Trump cared really about crime in D.C., why not meet with the mayor or other mayors around the country, come up with a solution, like President Biden did with the Safer Communities Act, which is why violent crimes are coming down in cities. But he did not do that. He did not even consult the mayor about his plan.

CORNISH: Well, let me jump in here, Antjuan. We have heard Mayor Bowser say, look, this is working. I've talked to Trump. In recent days she has spoken differently and made it sound sort of more collaborative.

I'm also interested, and, Francesca, I'm bringing you in, because you actually got to ask Vance a question I've wanted to know, when does this end? What's the benchmark for when it ends?

CHAMBERS: And he said that they wouldn't be there indefinitely, not just in Washington, D.C., because I started by asking about Chicago and Baltimore and other cities, that -- that their plan to fight crime isn't necessarily to send in the National Guard indefinitely. But he said that part of this is political because they're being accused of fascism and other things, that it works better if the cities want them to come in.

[07:00:04]

But as you're pointing out, we've heard these cities and states say they don't want the administration to send in the National Guard. So, it was an interesting answer.

CORNISH: So, they were hearing the criticism is what I hear in general, that concern about being seen as fascist.

CHAMBERS: Yes. But I also want to point out that of the list that you put up there, I actually spoke to several of those mayors too recently, and I think that they welcome federal help if it's the kind of federal help in areas that they -- they feel that they need help with, for sure (ph).

CORNISH: Right, there's always a catch. There's always a catch.

SEAWRIGHT: For sure.

CHAMBERS: Yes.

CORNISH: Group chat, thank you so much for talking with me. Thank you for waking up with us. "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts now.